History Of the Peninsular War Volume I of 6 by Robert Southey PDF
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Title: History of the Peninsular War Volume I (of 6) Author: Robert Southey Release Date: September 30, 2019 [EBook #60386] Language: English Character set encoding: UTF-8 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF THE PENINSULAR WAR, VOL 1 *** Produced by Brian Coe, Charlie Howard, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) Transcriber’s Note: Notes at the end of this eBook explain special notation used to highlight Sidenotes. HISTORY OF THE PENINSULAR WAR. LONDON: PRINTED BY THOMAS DAVISON, WHITEFRIARS. HISTORY OF THE PENINSULAR WAR. “Unto thee “Let thine own times as an old story be.” Donne. BY ROBERT SOUTHEY, ESQ. LL.D. POET LAUREATE, HONORARY MEMBER OF THE ROYAL SPANISH ACADEMY, OF THE ROYAL SPANISH ACADEMY OF HISTORY, OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTE OF THE NETHERLANDS, OF THE CYMMRODORION, OF THE MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY, ETC. A NEW EDITION. IN SIX VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON: JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE-STREET. MDCCCXXVIII. Ἱστορίας γὰρ ἐὰν ἀφέλῃ τις τὸ διὰ τί, καὶ πῶς, καὶ τίνος χάριν ἐπράχθη, καὶ τὸ πραχθὲν πότερα εὔλογον ἔσχε τὸ τέλος, τὸ καταλειπόμενον αὐτῆς ἀγώνισμα μὲν, μάθημα δὲ οὐ γίγνεται· καὶ παραυτίκα μὲν τέρπει, πρὸς δὲ τὸ μέλλον οὐδὲν ὠφελεῖ τὸ παράπαν. Polybius, lib. iii. sect. 31. TO THE KING. SIR, It is with peculiar fitness, as well as pleasure, that I inscribe to your Majesty a History of the most glorious war recorded in the v British annals. When the Regency devolved into your hands, the fortunes of our allies were at the lowest ebb, and neither arts nor efforts were spared for making the spirit of this country sink with them. At that momentous crisis every thing depended, under Providence, upon your single determination; and to that determination Great Britain is beholden for its triumph, and Europe for its deliverance. To your Majesty, therefore, this faithful History is offered, as a portion of the tribute due to a just, magnanimous, and splendid reign, and as a proof of individual respect and gratitude from Your Majesty’s Most dutiful subject and servant, ROBERT SOUTHEY. PREFACE. Eight years have now elapsed since the conclusion of that memorable war which began upon the coast of Portugal, and was brought to its triumphant close before the walls of Thoulouse. From the commencement of that contest I entertained the hope and intention of recording its events, being fully persuaded that, if this country should perform its duty as well as the Spaniards and Portugueze would discharge theirs, the issue would be as glorious as the cause was good. Having therefore early begun the history, and sedulously pursued it, it would have been easy for me to have brought it forth while the public, in the exultation of success, were eager for its details. But I was not so unmindful of what was due to them and to the subject; and I waited patiently till, in addition to the means of information which were within my reach, more materials should be supplied by the publications of persons who had been engaged in the war, and till time enough had been allowed for farther consideration and fuller knowledge to correct or confirm the views and opinions which I had formed upon the events as they occurred. I would have waited longer if there had been any reasonable prospect that the history undertaken by order of the Spanish Government would have been completed. The single volume which has appeared is written with great ability; and if it had proceeded farther, I might have derived more advantage from it than from any, or all other publications upon the subject. But its progress has been interrupted by the revolution in Spain; and the aspects in that country are so dark, that there can be little hope of seeing it resumed. A list of the printed documents which have been consulted in this work will be appended to the last volume. For the private sources of information which have been open to him, the author must content himself here with making a general acknowledgement. They are such as might entitle him to assert, that since the publication of Strada’s Decades, no history composed by one who was not an actor in it, has appeared with higher claims to authority. There is a danger in attempting stories of prime importance, lest they should excite expectations which it is fatal to disappoint, and yet impossible to fulfil. Great talents have sunk, and lofty reputations have been wrecked in such attempts. I might well be apprehensive for my own fortune in the present undertaking, were it not for a belief, that in the variety of details which this narration contains, in the importance of its events, in its splendid examples of heroism and virtue, and, above all, in the moral interest that pervades it, the reader will find attractions which may compensate for any defects in the execution of so arduous a work. Keswick, July 22, 1822. CONTENTS. PAGE Introduction 1 CHAPTER I. Gradual degradation of Spain and Portugal 4 Tyranny of the Church and of the Governments 5, 6 Mal-administration of the laws 6 Disuse of the Cortes 7 vi vii viii ix x xi Condition of the Nobles 7 Of the army 8 Improvement among the Clergy 9 State of the Religious Orders 11 Improving literature 12 Morals 12 National character unchanged 14 Both countries in a favourable state for improvement 14 Both become dependent upon France 15 Causes and progress of the French Revolution 16 Buonaparte 19 Military power of France 23 The Conscription 23 Change in the constitution and character of the French army 29 Levelling principle of the Revolutionary service 30 Honourable character of the old French army 32 Honour not the principle of despotism 32 Education in the hands of the Clergy before the Revolution 33 The whole system destroyed 35 Public instruction promised by the Revolutionists 36 Talleyrand’s scheme 36 Religion omitted 36 Condorcet’s scheme 36 Religion proscribed 37 Scheme of the National Convention 37 Domestic education proscribed 38 None of these schemes attempted in practice 39 Normal schools 40 Consequences of these visionary schemes 41 Attachment of the Jacobins to Buonaparte 42 A system of education necessary for his views 43 Imperial University 44 Communal Colleges 46 Ecclesiastical schools 47 Lyceums 49 First Catechism 50 Special Military Academies 51 Youths from the conquered countries 51 Moral effect of the Lyceums 52 System of inspection 52 Uniformity of education 53 Effects of the Revolution upon morals 55 Frequency of divorces 55 Obscene publications 56 Gaming-houses established by Government 56 Abolition of primogeniture 57 Degradation of the Church 60 State of Europe 61 England 63 Duke of Portland’s administration 64 The Grenville party 66 xii The Foxites 67 Attempts to raise a cry for peace 68 Superstition concerning Buonaparte 68 Admirers of the French Revolution 69 Increased expenditure, activity, and wealth 70 Manufacturing system 71 Weakness of the Government 73 Hopes of Buonaparte 74 CHAPTER II. Conjectures concerning the projects of Buonaparte 76 Rise of D. Manuel de Godoy 79 He is created a Prince for making peace with France 80 Disgraceful terms of that peace 81 Court of Spain not willingly subservient to France 80 Godoy not corrupted by France 82 Disposition to join with the allies before the peace of Tilsit 82 The Prince of Asturias inimical to Godoy 83 Parties in favour of the French 83 Unpopularity of Godoy 85 The French Ambassador advises the Prince to solicit an alliance with Buonaparte’s family 86 The Prince applies secretly to Buonaparte 87 Buonaparte intends to seize the Peninsula 88 Spanish troops sent to the North of Europe and to Tuscany 88 Condition of the Portugueze Government 89 Portugal required to act against Great Britain 90 Middle course proposed by the Portugueze Court 91 Preparations for occupying Portugal 91 The French and Spanish Ambassadors leave Lisbon 93 Secret treaty of Fontainebleau 93 British residents expelled from Lisbon 96 Edict for the exclusion of British commerce 96 For registering the persons and property of the British 97 The British Minister leaves Lisbon 97 A Russian squadron enters the Tagus 98 Buonaparte endeavours to seize the Royal Family 99 Junot’s proclamation from Alcantara 100 The French enter Portugal 102 Their rapacity upon the march 102 Conduct at Abrantes 103 Representation of the British Ambassador 105 The Prince determines upon removing to Brazil 106 He refuses to let the people and the English fleet defend the city 107 Embarkation of the Royal Family 109 Regency appointed by the Prince 112 Junot advances rapidly 114 The French enter Lisbon 115 Miserable plight of those who first entered 117 Arrival of the second division 118 Forced loan required 120 A Frenchman added to the Regency 120 xiii xiv Edict for confiscating English goods 121 Use of arms prohibited 121 Pastoral letter of the Cardinal Patriarch 122 Conduct of the Inquisitor General 124 The French flag hoisted 124 Insult at the theatre, and commotion in Lisbon 126 Precautions of the French 128 Regulations concerning English goods 130 Scarcity of corn apprehended 131 Measures for providing the army 132 The Portugueze leave their fields unsown 133 Spaniards under General Carraffa at Porto 134 General Taranco takes the command there 134 Good conduct of the troops 135 Solano at Setubal 135 His schemes for the improvement of society 136 Emigration from Lisbon 138 Falsehoods respecting England 140 Report of the French Minister, M. Champagny, concerning Portugal 141 Second report, indicating intentions against Spain 144 Conscription for 1809 required 145 Threats against England 146 The royal arms of Portugal broken 147 Junot declares that the Portugueze Government is dissolved 148 Junot appointed Governor for the Emperor Napoleon 149 Council of Government formed 150 War-contribution extraordinary 152 Godoy recalls the Spanish troops from Portugal 156 Part of them detained by the French 156 The whole of Portugal under command of the French 157 The flower of the Portugueze army marched into France 157 Discontent of the people 158 Executions at Caldas 159 Conduct of the French Generals 163 State of Lisbon 166 Increase of the Sebastianists 169 Edicts to prevent emigration 174 Special criminal tribunal 176 Measures of police 177 Deputation of Portugueze to Bayonne 179 Letter from the Deputation 180 Junot made Duke of Abrantes 181 He hopes to be made King of Portugal 182 The Juiz do Povo proposes to ask for a King of Buonaparte’s family 183 Fate of the mover of this scheme 185 CHAPTER III. Affair of the Escurial 187 Ferdinand accused of plotting to dethrone his father, and attempting his mother’s life 187 Persons implicated in the charge 188 Ferdinand confesses himself faulty, and intreats forgiveness 189 xv This affair disgraceful to all parties 189 Not instigated by Buonaparte 190 His conduct 191 Anxiety of Godoy 192 The Queen of Etruria expelled from Tuscany 193 Buonaparte writes to the King of Spain 194 Troops marched into Spain 194 Seizure of Pamplona 195 Seizure of Barcelona 198 Seizure of Monjuic 201 Seizure of St. Sebastians and Figueras 201 Depôts established at Barcelona 202 Alarm of the Spaniards 204 Fears and perplexities of the Spanish Court 205 Measures for protecting the intended emigration 207 Hopes of the Prince’s party 209 Vacillation of the King 210 Insurrection at Aranjuez 211 Abdication of Charles IV. 214 CHAPTER IV. Ministry formed by Ferdinand 219 Godoy’s property confiscated without a trial 220 Murat enters Spain 222 People of Madrid exhorted to receive the French as friends 223 The French enter Madrid 224 Murat refuses to acknowledge Ferdinand 226 Grouchy made Governor of Madrid 226 Declaration concerning the affair of the Escurial 227 The abdication represented as a voluntary act 227 Charles complains to the French 228 He writes to Buonaparte, intreating him to interfere 230 Letters of the Queen to Murat 231 The Infante D. Carlos sent to meet Buonaparte 234 Ferdinand is urged to go and meet the Emperor 235 The sword of Francis I. restored to the French 236 Alarm of the people 237 Perplexity of Ferdinand and his Ministers 238 Dispatches from Izquierdo 240 The Ministers deceived by these dispatches 243 General Savary arrives at Madrid 244 Ferdinand consents to go 245 He sets out from Madrid 247 Urquijo’s advice to him at Vitoria 249 Ferdinand writes to Buonaparte from Vitoria 252 Buonaparte’s reply 254 Ferdinand is advised to proceed 258 Promises of Savary, and preparations for seizing Ferdinand 259 Ferdinand passes the frontiers 260 Buonaparte receives him with an embrace 261 Ferdinand is required to renounce the throne for himself and all his family 261 xvi xvii Conversation between Buonaparte and Escoiquez 262 Second conference with Escoiquez 268 Cevallos is required to discuss the terms of the renunciation with M. Champagny 269 Buonaparte’s declaration to Cevallos 271 Terms proposed to Escoiquez 272 Debates among Ferdinand’s Counsellors 273 Labrador appointed to treat with M. Champagny 274 Ferdinand is prevented from returning 275 Buonaparte sends for Charles and the Queen to Bayonne 277 Godoy released by Murat, and sent to Bayonne 278 He is reinstated as Charles’s Minister 280 Ferdinand’s proposals to his Father 281 Letter from Charles to his Son 282 Ferdinand’s reply 287 Terms upon which he offers to restore the crown 291 Interview between Charles and Ferdinand in presence of Buonaparte 292 Ferdinand’s renunciation 293 Proclamation of Charles to the Spaniards 294 Charles cedes his rights to Buonaparte 295 Treaty of cession 296 Ferdinand threatened by Buonaparte 298 His act of renunciation 299 The Royal Family sent into France 300 CHAPTER V. Conduct of Murat towards the Junta of Government 302 The Junta apply to Ferdinand for instructions as to resisting the French 305 Absurdity of their conduct 306 Agitation of the public mind 307 Orders for sending the Queen of Etruria and the Infante D. Francisco to Bayonne 308 The Junta deliberate concerning the Infante 309 Agitation of the people of Madrid 310 Departure of the Queen and the Infante 311 Insurrection of the people 312 Defence of the arsenal by Daoiz and Velarde 314 Executions by sentence of a military tribunal 316 The Infante D. Antonio sent to Bayonne 317 Murat claims a place in the Junta 318 Edicts for preserving peace in the capital 318 Circular letter of the Inquisition 320 The Junta discharged from their authority by Charles’s reassumption 321 Means of resistance authorized by Ferdinand 322 The Junta resolve that they have no longer authority to obey 323 Address from Ferdinand and the Infantes, exhorting the people to submission 324 Joseph Buonaparte chosen by his brother for King of Spain 327 Addresses from the Junta and Council of Castille to Buonaparte 329 Address from the City of Madrid 330 Assembly of Notables convoked at Bayonne 332 Proclamation of Buonaparte to the Spaniards 332 xviii CHAPTER VI. General insurrection 334 Deputies from Asturias sent to England 337 Insurrection at Coruña 338 Excesses of the populace 341 Juntas established every where 342 Formation of the Junta of Seville 342 They declare war against France 346 Solano hesitates to co-operate with them 346 He refuses the assistance of the British squadron 348 Solano summons a council of officers 349 They exhort the people not to engage in hostilities with the French 350 The people insist upon taking arms 352 Solano is advised to withdraw 353 He is murdered by the mob 354 Morla appointed Governor of Cadiz 356 Surrender of the French squadron 358 Massacre at Valencia 362 Punishment of the assassins 368 Duhesme fails in an attempt to occupy Lerida 370 Palafox escapes from Bayonne to Zaragoza 371 Insurrection in that city 373 Palafox made Captain-General of Aragon 374 Jovellanos and Cabarrus at Zaragoza 374 Palafox declares war against France 376 Addresses to the people 378 Proclamation of the Junta of Seville 386 Directions for conducting the war 391 Measures for enrolling the people 394 Appeal to the French soldiers 395 Movements of the French against the insurgents 397 Murat leaves Spain 398 Several Frenchmen poisoned by the wine at Madrid 397 CHAPTER VII. The Notables assemble at Bayonne 400 Azanza appointed President 401 Urquijo summoned thither 401 He represents the state of Spain to Buonaparte 402 Arrival of Joseph Buonaparte 403 The Notables receive him as King 404 Their address to the Spanish nation 405 Proclamation of the Intrusive King 407 Bishop of Orense’s answer to his summons 408 Buonaparte delivers a constitution to Azanza 411 Speech of Azanza at the opening of their sittings 412 Address of the Notables to King Joseph 413 The Bayonne Constitution 414 Religion 415 The succession 415 xix xx Patrimony of the Crown 416 Ministry 417 The Senate 417 Senatorial Junta for the preservation of personal liberty 417 Senatorial Junta of the Liberty of the Press 418 Council of State 419 Cortes 420 The Colonies 423 Judicature 424 Finance 425 Alliance with France 426 Security of persons 426 Limitation of entails 427 Abolition of privileges 427 Time for introducing the Constitution, and for amending it 428 The Nobles and Regulars contend for their respective orders 429 Joseph appoints his Ministers 430 Letter from Ferdinand to the Intruder 432 Joseph presents the Constitution to the Notables 433 Ceremony of accepting it 434 Medals voted in honour of this event 436 Address of thanks to Buonaparte 436 Buonaparte is embarrassed in replying to it 438 Joseph enters Spain 440 Buonaparte returns to Paris 441 CHAPTER VIII. Feelings of the English people concerning the transactions in Spain 443 Proceedings in Parliament 445 Mr. Whitbread proposes to negotiate with France 447 Mr. Whitbread speaks in favour of the Spaniards 447 Mr. Whitbread’s letter to Lord Holland 448 Measures of the British Government 451 Movements of the French in Navarre and Old Castille 452 Torquemada burnt 453 General Cuesta attempts at first to quiet the people 453 He takes the national side 454 Evil of his hesitation 454 He is defeated at Cabezon 455 The French enter Valladolid 456 They enter Santander 456 General Lefebvre Desnouettes defeats the Aragonese 456 He marches against Zaragoza 457 Troops sent from Barcelona towards Zaragoza and Valencia 458 General Schwartz marches towards Manresa 459 He is defeated at Bruch, and retreats to Barcelona 460 General Chabran recalled in consequence of Schwartz’s defeat 462 Arbos burnt by the French 462 Chabran defeated at Bruch 463 Duhesme endeavours to secure Gerona 463 Mataro sacked by the French 465 xxi xxii Failure of the attempt on Gerona 465 Figueras relieved by the French 466 Movements of Moncey against Valencia 467 Defeat of the Valencians 468 He approaches the city 468 Preparations for defence 469 The Valencians defeated at Quarte 471 The French repulsed from Valencia 472 Moncey retreats into Castille 473 Movements of the French in Andalusia 473 Dupont defeats the Spaniards at the Bridge of Alcolea 475 Cordoba entered and pillaged by the French 476 Dupont unable to advance 476 He is disappointed of succours from Portugal 477 Reinforcements from Madrid join him 478 Cuesta and Blake advance against the French 479 M. Bessieres defeats them at Rio Seco 480 The way to Madrid opened by this victory 481 Joseph enters Madrid 482 Fears of the Intrusive Government 483 The Council of Castille demur at the oath of allegiance 484 General Cassagne enters Jaen 487 He is compelled to evacuate it, and returns to Baylen 488 Preparations of General Castaños 490 Dupont’s dispatches intercepted 491 Plan for attacking the French 493 Battle of Baylen 494 Surrender of the French army 496 Terms of the surrender 497 Difficulty of executing the terms 500 Correspondence between Dupont and Morla 504 Treatment of the prisoners 508 Rejoicings for the victory 510 Movements of Bessieres after the battle of Rio Seco 511 Correspondence between Bessieres and Blake 512 The French leave Madrid, and retire to Vitoria 514 HISTORY OF THE PENINSULAR WAR. The late war in the Peninsula will be memorable above all of modern times. It stands alone for the perfidiousness with which the French commenced it, and the atrocious system upon which they carried it on. The circumstances of the resistance are not less extraordinary than those of the aggression, whether we consider the total disorganization to which the kingdom of Spain was reduced; the inveterate abuses which had been entailed upon it by the imbecility, misrule, and dotage, of its old despotism; the inexperience, the weakness, and the errors, of the successive governments which grew out of the necessities of the times; or the unexampled patriotism and endurance of the people, which bore them through these complicated disadvantages. There are few portions of history from which lessons of such political xxiii 1 Mal- administration of the laws. Gradual degradation of Spain and Portugal. Tyranny of the church. Despotism of the two governments. importance are to be deduced; none which can more powerfully and permanently excite the sympathy of mankind, because of the mighty interests at stake. For this was no common war, of which a breach of treaty, an extension of frontier, a distant colony, or a disputed succession, serves as the cause or pretext: it was as direct a contest between the principles of good and evil as the elder Persians, or the Manicheans, imagined in their fables: it was for the life or death of national independence, national spirit, and of all those holy feelings which are comprehended in the love of our native land. Nor was it for the Peninsula alone that the war was waged: it was for England and for Europe; for literature and for liberty; for domestic morals and domestic happiness; for the vital welfare of the human race. Therefore I have thought that I could not better fulfil my duties to mankind, and especially to my own country, nor more fitly employ the leisure wherewith God has blessed me, nor endeavour in any worthier manner to transmit my name to future ages, than by composing, with all diligence, the faithful history of this momentous struggle. To this resolution I have been incited, as an Englishman, by the noble part which England has borne in these events; and as an individual, by the previous course of my studies, which, during the greater part of my life, have been so directed, that the annals and the literature of Spain and Portugal have become to me almost as familiar as our own. It is not strange, then, that having thus, as it were, intellectually naturalized myself in those countries, I should have watched them with the liveliest interest through their dreadful trial: and being thus prepared for the task, having some local knowledge of the scene of action, rich in accumulated materials, and possessing access to the best and highest sources of information, I undertake it cheerfully; fully assured that the principles herein to be inculcated and exemplified are established upon the best and surest foundation, and that nations can be secure and happy only in proportion as they adhere to them. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY VIEW OF THE STATE OF SPAIN AND PORTUGAL, FRANCE AND ENGLAND. The history of Spain and Portugal, from the foundation of their respective monarchies to the middle of the sixteenth century, when both countries attained their highest point of greatness, is eminently heroic, for the persevering spirit with which they warred against the Moors, never ceasing and scarcely breathing from the contest till they had finally exterminated them; and for the splendour, the extent, and the importance of their foreign conquests. Both kingdoms had risen by the same virtues; the same vices brought on the decline of both; and the history of their decline is not less instructive than that of their rise. Their external relations have been widely different; but notwithstanding this difference, and notwithstanding a national enmity, kept alive rather by old remembrances and mutual pride than by the frequency of their wars with each other, the Spaniards and Portugueze have continued to be morally and intellectually one people. They spring from the same stock; the same intermixture of races has taken place among them; and their national character has been formed by similar circumstances of climate, language, manners, and institutions. The old governments are called free, like all those which the Teutonic tribes established; but this freedom was little better than a scheme of graduated tyranny, and the laws upon which it was founded were only so many privileges which the conquerors reserved or arrogated to themselves. When the commixture of languages and nations was complete, and commerce had raised up a class of men who had no existence under the feudal system, a struggle for political liberty ensued throughout all the European kingdoms. It was soon terminated in Spain: a good cause was ruined by the rashness and misconduct of its adherents; and the scale, after it had been borne down by the sword of the sovereign, never recovered its equipoise: for the Romish church leagued itself with the monarchical authority, against whose abuse it had formerly been the only bulwark; but changing its policy now according to the times, it consecrated the despotism whereby it was upheld in its own usurpations. The effects of this double tyranny were not immediately perceived; but in its inevitable consequences it corrupted and degraded every thing to which it could extend, ... laws, morals, industry, literature, science, arts, and arms. In other countries where absolute monarchy has been established, and the Romish superstition has triumphed, both have been in some degree modified by the remains of old institutions, the vicinity of free states, and the influence of literature and manners. But in Spain and Portugal almost all traces of the ancient constitution had been effaced; and as there existed nothing to qualify the spirit of popery, a memorable example was given of its unmitigated effects. The experiment of intolerance was tried with as little compunction as in Japan, and upon a larger scale. Like the Japanese government, the Inquisition went through with what it began; and though it could not in like manner secure its victory, by closing the ports and barring the passes of the Peninsula, it cut off, as much as possible, all intellectual communication with the rest of the world. The courts of Madrid and Lisbon were as despotic as those of Constantinople and Ispahan. They did not, indeed, manifest their power by acts of blood, because the reigning families were not cruel, and cruelty had ceased to be a characteristic of the times: but with that cold, callous insensibility to which men are liable, in proportion as they are removed from the common sympathies of humankind, they permitted their ministers to dispense at pleasure exile and hopeless imprisonment, to the rigour and inhumanity of which death itself would have been mercy. The laws afforded no protection, for the will of the minister was above the laws; and every man who possessed influence at court violated them with impunity, and procured impunity for all whom he chose to protect. Scarcely did there exist even an appearance of criminal justice. Quarrels among the populace were commonly decided by the knife: he who stabbed an antagonist or an enemy in the street wiped the instrument in his cloak, and passed on unmolested by the spectators, who never interfered farther than to call a priest to the dying man. When it happened 2 3 4 5 6 7 Condition of the nobles. Improvement of the higher clergy. Disuse of the Cortes. Condition of the army. State of religion. State of the religious orders. Improving literature. that a criminal was thrown into prison, there he remained till it became necessary to make room for a new set of tenants: the former were then turned adrift; or, if their crimes had been notorious and frequent, they were shipped off to some foreign settlement. After the triumph of the monarchical power, the Cortes had fallen first into insignificance, then into disuse1. There was no legislative body; the principle of the government being, that all laws and public measures of every kind were to proceed from the will and pleasure of the sovereign. Men of rank, therefore, if they were not in office, had no share in public business; and their deplorable education rendered them little fit either to improve or enjoy a life of perfect leisure. It is said also to have been the system of both governments, while they yet retained some remains of perverted policy, to keep the nobles in attendance about the court, where they might be led into habits of emulous extravagance, which would render them hungry for emoluments, and thereby dependent upon the crown. The long-continued moral deterioration of the privileged classes had produced in many instances a visible physical degeneracy; and this tendency was increased by those incestuous marriages, common in both countries, which pride and avarice had introduced, and for which the sanction of an immoral church was to be purchased. The armies partook of the general degradation. The forms of military power existed like the forms of justice: but they resembled the trunk of a tree, of which the termites have eaten out the timber, and only the bark remains. There appeared in the yearly almanacks a respectable list of regiments, and a redundant establishment of officers: but, brave and capable of endurance as the Portugueze and Spaniards are, never were there such officers or such armies in any country which has ranked among civilized nations. Subalterns might be seen waiting behind a chair in their uniforms, or asking alms in the streets; and the men were what soldiers necessarily become, when, without acquiring any one virtue of their profession, its sense of character and of honour, its regularity, or its habits of restraint, they possess all its license, and have free scope for the vices which spring up in idleness. Drawn by lot into a compulsory service, ill-disciplined, and ill-paid, they were burthensome to the people, without affording any security to the nation. The state of religion was something more hopeful, though it is scarcely possible to imagine any thing more gross than the idolatry, more impudent than the fables, more monstrous than the mythology of the Romish church, as it flourished in Spain and Portugal. Wherever this corrupt church is dominant, there is no medium between blind credulity and blank, hopeless, utter unbelief: and this miserable effect tends to the stability of the system which has produced it, because men who have no religion accommodate themselves to whatever it may be their interest to profess. The peasantry and the great mass of the people believed with implicit and intense faith whatever they were taught. The parochial clergy, differing little from the people in their manner of life, and having received an education so nearly worthless that it can scarcely be said to have raised them above the common level, were for the most part as superstitious and as ill-informed as their flock. The higher clergy, however, had undergone a gradual and important change, which had not been brought about by laws or literature, but by the silent and unperceived influence of the spirit of the times. While their principle of intolerance remained the same (being inherent in popery, and inseparable from it), the practice had been greatly abated; and the autos-da-fe, the high festival days of this merciless idolatry, were at an end: for it was felt and secretly acknowledged, that these inhuman exhibitions were disgraceful in the eyes of Europe, and had brought a stain upon the character of the peninsular nations in other catholic countries, and even in Rome itself. The persecution of the Jews therefore (which the founder of the Braganzan line would never have permitted if he had been able to prevent it) ceased; and the distinction between Old and New Christians had nearly disappeared. At the same time, an increased intercourse with heretical states, the power and prosperity of Great Britain, and the estimation in which the British character is held wherever it is known, had insensibly diminished, if not the abhorrence in which heresy was held, certainly the hatred against heretics. Thus the habitual feelings of the clergy had been modified, and they were no longer made cruel by scenes of execrable barbarity, which in former times compelled them to harden their hearts. They became also ashamed of those impostures upon which so large a portion of their influence had been founded: though they did not purge their kalendar, they made no additions to it; miraculous images were no longer discovered: when a grave-digger, in the exercise of his office, happened to find a corpse in a state of preservation, no attempt was made to profit by the popular opinion of its sanctity: miracles became less frequent as they were more scrupulously examined; and impostures2, which, half a century ago, would have been encouraged and adopted, were detected, exposed, and punished. The higher clergy in both countries were decorous in their lives, and in some instances exemplary in the highest degree. To the monastic orders the influence of the times had been less beneficial. There were ages during which those institutions produced the greatest blessings in Europe; when they kept alive the lamp of knowledge, mitigated barbarian manners, and carried the light of Christianity among a race of ferocious conquerors. These uses had long since gone by; and the dissolution of the Jesuits had extinguished the missionary spirit which that extraordinary society had provoked in its rivals, and by which it had itself almost atoned to humanity and to religion for its own manifold misdeeds. The wealthy orders still afforded a respectable provision for the younger sons of old or opulent families; the far more numerous establishments of the mendicants were more injuriously filled from the lower classes. The peasant who was ambitious of seeing a son elevated above the rank in which he was born, destined him for a friar; and he who was too idle to work, or who wished to escape from military service, took shelter in the habit. The mendicant orders were indeed a reproach to Catholicism, and a pest to the countries wherein they existed; they contributed not only to keep the people ignorant, but to render them profligate. Yet even among the Franciscans men were found, who, by their irreproachable conduct, their sincere though misdirected piety, and sometimes by their learning and industrious lives, preserved the order from the contempt into which it would otherwise have fallen even among the vulgar. The nunneries of every description produced nothing but evil, except in those cases where persons went into them by their own choice, who in Protestant countries would have been consigned to a Bedlam. Literature had revived in both kingdoms, and was flourishing, notwithstanding the restraints which the government and the Inquisition continued to impose. Few similar institutions have equalled the Royal Academies of Madrid and Lisbon in the zeal 8 9 10 11 12 Morals of the lower classes. National character unchanged. Both countries in an improving state. Both become subservient to France. Causes of the French Revolution. and ability with which they have brought to light their ancient records, and elucidated the history and antiquities of their respective countries. There was one most important subject from which men of letters were compelled to refrain ... the old free constitution: but it met them every where in their researches; and its restoration was the object of their wishes, if not of their hopes. The lower classes, who in great cities are every where too generally depraved, were perhaps peculiarly so in Spain, from the effect of what may be called their vulgar, rather than their popular, literature. This had assumed a curious and most pernicious character, arising partly from the disregard in which ill-executed laws must always be held, and partly from the faith of the people in the efficacy of absolution. The ruffian and the bravo were the personages of those ballads which were strung for sale along dead walls in frequented streets, and vended by blind hawkers about the country. In these pieces, which, as they were written by men in low life for readers of their own level, represent accurately the state of vulgar feeling, the robberies and murders which the hero commits are described as so many brave exploits performed in his vocation; and, at the conclusion, he is always delivered over safely to the priest, but seldom to the hangman. Fables of a like tendency were not unfrequently chosen by their dramatists for the sake of flattering some fashionable usage of superstition, such as the adoration of the cross and the use of the rosary; and the villain who, in the course of the drama, has perpetrated every imaginable crime, is exhibited at the catastrophe3 as a saint by virtue of one of these redeeming practices. Such works were more widely injurious in their tendency than any of those which the Inquisition suppressed. They infected the minds of the people; and the surest course by which a coxcomb in low life could excite admiration and envy among his compeers was by appearing habitually to set justice at defiance. It became a fashion among some of the higher classes in Spain to imitate4 these wretches; and, by a stranger and more deplorable perversion of nature, women were found among those of distinguished rank, who affected the dress and the manners of the vilest of their sex. No such depravity was known in Portugal: the court set an example of decorum and morality there; and as there were fewer large towns, in proportion to the size of the kingdom, there was consequently less corruption among the people. Travellers, forming their hasty estimate from the inhabitants of sea-ports and great cities, have too generally agreed in reviling the Portugueze and Spaniards; but if they whose acquaintance with these nations was merely superficial have been disposed to depreciate and despise them, others who dwelt among them always became attached to the people, and bore willing and honourable testimony to the virtues of the national character. It was indeed remarkable how little this had partaken of the national decay. The meanest peasant knew that his country had once been prosperous and powerful; he was familiar with the names of its heroes; and he spake of the days that were past with a feeling which was the best omen for those that were to come. Such was the moral and intellectual state of the peninsular kingdoms toward the close of the eighteenth century. There was not the slightest appearance of improvement in the principles of the government or in the administration of justice; but, if such a disposition had arisen, no nations could have been in a more favourable state for the views of a wise minister and an enlightened sovereign. For the whole people were proudly and devoutly attached to the institutions of their country; there existed among them neither sects, nor factions, nor jarring interests; they were one-hearted in all things which regarded their native land; individuals felt for its honour as warmly as for their own; and obedience to their sovereign was with them equally a habit and a principle. In spite of the blind and inveterate despotism of the government, the mal-administration of the laws, and the degeneracy of the higher classes, both countries were in a state of slow, but certain, advancement; of which, increasing commerce, reviving literature, humaner manners, and mitigated bigotry were unequivocal indications. In this state they were found when France was visited by the most tremendous revolution that history has recorded, ... a revolution which was at once the consequence and the punishment of its perfidious policy, its licentiousness, and its irreligion. It was soon seen that this revolution threatened to propagate itself throughout the whole civilised world. The European governments combined against it; their views were discordant, their policy was erroneous, their measures were executed as ill as they were planned: a master-mind was equally wanting in the cabinet and in the field. In the hour of trial the Spanish court perceived the inefficiency of its organized force; and having neither wisdom to understand the strength of the nation, nor courage and virtue to rely upon it, it concluded a disastrous war by a dishonourable peace. From that time its councils were directed by France, and its treasures were at the disposal of the same domineering ally. A war against England, undertaken upon the most frivolous pretexts, and ruinous to its interests, was the direct consequence; and when, after the experimental peace of Amiens, hostilities were renewed between France and England, Spain had again to experience the same fatal results of the dependence to which her cabinet had subjected her. Portugal had purchased peace with less apparent dishonour, because the terms of the bargain were not divulged; but there also the government soon found that in such times to be weak is to be miserable: it was compelled to brook the ostentatious insolence of the French ambassadors, and to pay large sums for the continuance of a precarious neutrality whenever France thought proper to extort them; for the system of Europe had now been overthrown, and the laws of nations were trampled under foot. A military power, more formidable than that of Rome in its height of empire, of Zingis, or of Timour, had been established in France upon the wreck of all her ancient institutions; and this power was directed by the will of an individual the most ambitious of the human race, who was intoxicated with success, and whose heart and conscience were equally callous. Many causes combined in producing the French revolution: the example of a licentious court had spread like a pestilence through the country; impiety was in fashion among the educated classes; and the most abominable publications were circulated among the ignorant with as much zeal as if a conspiracy had actually been formed for the subversion of social order, by removing from mankind all restraints of morality, of religion, and of decency. Things were in this condition when France took part in the American war; a measure to which Louis XVI. reluctantly consented, because he felt in his heart its injustice, and had perhaps an ominous sentiment of its impolicy. The seeds of republicanism and revolution were thus imported by the government itself, and they fell upon a soil which was prepared for them. Financial difficulties increased; state quacks were 13 14 15 16 17 Progress of the French revolution. His crimes in Egypt and Syria. Character of Napoleon Buonaparte. Opportunity of redeeming his character at the peace of Amiens. called in; a legislative assembly was convoked in a kingdom where none of the inhabitants had been trained to legislation; and the fatal error was committed of uniting the three estates in one chamber, whereby the whole power was transferred to the commons. There was a generous feeling at that time abroad, from which much good might have been educed, had there been ability to have directed it, and if the heart of the country had not been corrupted. Nothing was heard except the praises of freedom and liberality, and professions of the most enlarged and cosmopolitan philanthropy. The regenerated nation even renounced for the future, all offensive war by a legislative act: they fancied that the age of political redemption was arrived, and they announced the Advent of Liberty, with peace on earth, good will towards men. They themselves seemed to believe that the Millennium of Philosophy was begun; and so in other countries the young and ardent, and the old who had learned no lessons from history, believed with them. But the consequences which Burke predicted from changes introduced with so much violence, and so little forethought, followed in natural and rapid succession. The constitutionalists, who had supposed that it is as easy to remodel the institutions of a great kingdom in practice as in theory, were driven from the stage by bolder innovators; and these in their turn yielded to adventurers more profligate and more daring than themselves. Nobility was abolished; monarchy was overthrown; the church was plundered; the clergy were proscribed; atheism was proclaimed; the king and queen were put to death, after a mockery of judicial forms; the dauphin slowly murdered by systematic ill-usage; a plaster statue of Liberty was set up in Paris; and in the course of two years more than fifteen hundred persons were beheaded at the feet of that statue, men and women indiscriminately. The frenzy spread throughout all France. In the wholesale butcheries which were reported to the National Convention, by its agents, as so many triumphs of equality and justice, not less than eighteen thousand lives were sacrificed by the executioner. It seemed as if God had abandoned the unhappy nation who had denied Him, and that they were delivered over, as the severest chastisement, to the devices of their own hearts. Before this madness was exhausted, the wretches who had thrust themselves into the government paid the earthly penalty of their guilty elevation. One faction did justice upon another: in the same place where dogs had licked the blood of Louis and his queen, there in succession did they lick the blood of Brissot, Danton, Hebert, Robespierre, and their respective associates. When the theorists, the fanatics, and the bolder villains, had perished, a set of intriguers, who had accommodated themselves in turn to all, came forward, and divided the spoil; till the unhappy nation, disgusted with such intrigues, and weary of perpetual changes, acquiesced with joy in the usurpation of a military adventurer, which promised them stability, at least, if not repose. The revolution had given the government absolute command over the whole physical force of France; and this prodigious power was now at the disposal of an individual unchecked by any restraint, and subject to no responsibility. Perhaps it would not have been possible to have selected among the whole human race any other man, to whom it would have been so dangerous to commit this awful charge. Napoleon Buonaparte possessed all the qualities which are required to form a perfect tyrant. His military genius was of the highest order; his talents were of the most imposing kind; his ambition insatiable; his heart impenetrable: he was without honour, without veracity, without conscience; looking for no world beyond the present, and determined to make this world his own, at whatever cost. The military executions committed in Italy by his orders had shown his contempt for the established usages of war, the law of nations, and the common feelings of humanity: the suppression of the Papal government, the usurpation of the Venetian states, and the seizure of Malta, had proved that neither submissiveness nor treaties afforded any protection against this fit agent of a rapacious and unprincipled democracy. But it was during the Egyptian expedition that the whole atrocity of his character was displayed. He landed in Egypt, proclaiming that he was the friend of the Grand Seignior, and that the French were true Mussulmen, who honoured Mahommed and the Koran. His first act was to storm a city belonging to the Grand Seignior, which he never summoned to surrender, and which was incapable of defence. The butchery was continued for some hours after the resistance had ceased. The very perpetrators of this carnage have related that they put to death old and young, men, women, and children, in the mosques, whither these unoffending and helpless wretches had fled to implore protection from God and from their prophet; and they have avowed that this was done deliberately, for the purpose of astonishing the people. Thus it was that Buonaparte commenced his career in Egypt. He left Alexandria, exclaiming, “The Virtues are on our side! Glory to Allah,” he said; “there is no other God but God: Mahommed is his prophet, and I am his friend.” He proclaimed to the Egyptians that Destiny directed all his operations, and had decreed from the beginning of the world, that after beating down the Cross, he should come into that country to fulfil the task assigned him; and he called upon them to enjoy the blessings of a system, in which the wisest and the most virtuous were to govern, and the people were to be happy. It is literally true, that the Egyptian mothers mutilated or killed their daughters, to save them from the brutality of his troops; and that w...
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